Negro is a term referring to people of Black African ancestry. Prior to the shift in the lexicon of American an worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal neutral formal term both by those of African descent as well as non-African blacks. Now it is often considered an ethnic slur although the term is still used in some contexts for historical reasons such as in the name of the United Negro College Fund. "Negro" means "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Italian "nero" is similar (Latin: niger = "black").